Nearly a week after the news that Jannik Sinner was infected with a banned substance without being banned from competition, Novak Djokovic spoke up to give his opinion.
Accordingly, Djokovic hopes this case will create a change in the way tennis deals with anti-doping.
Sinner has denied allegations he received special treatment - and insists his conscience is clear - after he was spared a ban, despite twice testing positive for the banned steroid clostebol earlier this year. now.
Many reactions were given after the case became public, with questions about whether it was fair to the players who quickly received punishment after testing positive.
“There are a lot of problems in the system,” Djokovic said. I can understand the feelings of many players who are questioning whether they should be treated the same way.
We see a lack of clear, standardized protocols. Hopefully our sport's governing bodies will be able to learn from this case and take a better approach for the future.
I think there needs to be a change, I think it's obvious… so that every player, regardless of their rank, status or profile, can receive the same type of treatment.”
Sinner, the current world No. 1 tennis player, fell into the center of a storm of controversy during preparations for the 2024 US Open.
The news has caused outrage in tennis circles, with some colleagues reacting angrily and claiming that the best are given special treatment.
Many players, including Denis Shapovalov, Lucas Pouille and Tara Moore, have argued that top players have different rules than lower-ranked players.
Moore was out of action for 19 months after testing positive for the metabolites nandrolone and boldenone in 2022 before receiving a verdict of not guilty or negligent in December.
Djokovic continued: "And now the question is whether it is a matter of money or not. Can a tennis player afford to pay large sums of money to a law firm for effective representation?" better for your case or not.
I do not know. It's really something that I feel like we have to work on more together.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz responded cautiously when asked about his opponent's positive test result.
“Ultimately, it's a very delicate subject,” he said, “It's a very, very serious subject. There are things behind the scenes that many people don't know, I certainly don't know.
So in the end, to be honest, it's very difficult to talk about this topic. He tested positive, but there must be some reason why they let him continue playing that we don't know. Therefore, I cannot say more on this subject.
In the end, they declared him innocent and he remained in the tournament. I think there's not much more to say."
